Vera Miles

I was watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents on Encore/starz or whatever that network is called. Vera was the guest star. Then I watched Psycho on demand, where Vera plays the good-girl sister to Janet Leigh's sexy Marion Crane.

I can't believe Hitchcock got obsessed with her. She was his answer to Grace Kelly when Kelly got married and gave up show business. Vera is as sexy as a nun. She's like saltpeter on a stick. She doesn't even have the sexy librarian look. You figure if she let her hair down, she'd look exactly the same.

How could anyone replace Grace Kelly with Vera Miles?

by Anonymous

reply 73

09/10/2013

She's no Grace Kelly, but I do like her on her own - she always seems to be on edge and angry in her movies, she was good in Psycho and as a drunk in Backstreet with John Gavin and Susan Hayward and The Wrong Man with Henry Fonda and this creepy Twilight Zone episode "Mirror Image", she wasn't the greatest, but I like her well enough.

by Anonymous

reply 1

10/04/2012

I don't think he was very "obsessed" with Vera Miles. However, he was enamored of Tipi Hedren, and wanted to be her mentor and guide her career. Some say he was "obsessed" with her; to me it seems more like he just had an unseemly crush on her. At any rate, she got married and went her own way. He hated her after that.

by Anonymous

reply 2

10/04/2012

Vera did a lot of episodic TV in the 1960s and 1970s, apparently many directors and producers enjoyed her work.

You don't need to have great beauty or possess enormous charisma to be a good actress, or even great actress, you can either act or you can't.

Meryl Streep is not a great beauty, sure she was attractive in her youth, but there is clearly talent there, otherwise, why is she still working at her age, especially with such badly thinning hair?

The same can be said of Helen Mirren, she's old by Hollywood standards and Mirren also seems to have very thin lifeless hair. She doesn't usually wear a wig or extensions in most of her films, yet she is still doing very well despite her change in appearance.

Why am I mentioning hair? Hair seems to be an obsession in Hollywood, all the young starlets have enough hair for four women, we can pretty much assume that most of these actresses are in some type of supplemental hair.

The standards for average women are set too high and well, I'm glad I'm not a woman!

by Anonymous

reply 3

10/04/2012

Vera Miles is said to have gotten pregnant so she couldn't appear in Vertigo. She didn't like the attention Hitchcock was giving her and wanted out of her contract with him. He was furious with her and cast her in his tv shows and as a second banana in Psycho in order to fulfill her contract with him.

by Anonymous

reply 4

10/04/2012

Hitch had Vera Miles under his personal contract and planned to star her in Vertigo - but she was married to Tarzan Gordon Scott (lucky woman) and got pregnant. She was also in Hitch's The Wrong Man and he put her in Psycho, but had lost interest in her by then. She was a very busy actress in lots of programmers and tv series - but also did 2 classics with John Ford - The Searchers with the dreamy Jeff Hunter - and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. She is retired now in her 80s but won't do any interviews.

by Anonymous

reply 5

10/04/2012

She was about as exciting as Barbara Rush.

by Anonymous

reply 6

10/04/2012

Helen Mirren was sexy as hell back in her "Excalibur" days.

Miles must have reminded AH of a youthful crush. She's very good-looking, but not much else. R6 gets it exactly right.

by Anonymous

reply 7

10/04/2012

Eva Marie Saint was another sexless Hitchcock blonde.

Kim Novak, Grace Kelly, ingrid Bergman and Joan Fontaine were all beautiful when young. I think Hitchcock chose Janet Leigh for Psycho because of her high cheekbones and lean look. There is a lot of skull-like imagery in Psycho, and Leigh's face, when filmed in proper shadow, appears skeletal. Tippi Hedren was beautiful but kind of charmless.

by Anonymous

reply 8

10/04/2012

Don't forget Madeleine Carroll in The 39 Steps.

Wasn't she the original Hitchcock Blonde?

by Anonymous

reply 9

10/04/2012

Do you know any gossip about her?

Was she strictly straight?

Did you know that Vera Miles Vera Miles refused to meet with Jessica Biel for 'Hitchcock'?

by Anonymous

reply 10

03/04/2013

Vera Miles was on the classic Murder, She Wrote episode about the women's prison entitled "Jessica Behind Bars"

by Anonymous

reply 11

03/04/2013

In a 1956 feature article in Look magazine, Miles said of Hitchcock, "He has never complimented me, or even told me why he signed me." Hitchcock commented in the same article, "She's an attractive, intelligent and sexy woman. That about rolls it up." In a far more effusive mood, he told a reporter, referring to the similarities between Miles and Grace Kelly, "I feel the same way directing Vera that I did with Grace. She has a style, an intelligence, and a quality of understatement."

Production delays and her pregnancy cost Miles the dual leading role in the project Hitchcock designed as a showcase for his new star, Vertigo (1958), a film considered by many to be one of the director's masterworks. Miles recalled that when she told Hitchcock that she could not star in his deeply personal and melancholic thriller for which costumes and makeup tests had already been completed, "He was overwhelmed." The director replaced Miles with Kim Novak, with whom he clashed. When asked years later about Miles by director Francois Truffaut in the book Hitchcock/Truffaut, Hitchcock explained their professional falling-out this way: "She became pregnant just before the part that was going to turn her into a star. After that, I lost interest. I couldn't get the rhythm going with her again." Miles reflected, "Over the span of years, he's had one type of woman in his films, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, and so on. Before that, it was Madeleine Carroll. I'm not their type and never have been. I tried to please him but I couldn't. They are all sexy women, but mine is an entirely different approach."

by Anonymous

reply 12

03/04/2013

Lol R11, do you believe that Jessica Biel have seen 'Jessica Behind Bars'?

by Anonymous

reply 13

03/04/2013

"They were grooming me to be the next Vera Miles."

"The next who?"

Jane Fonda to Kris Kristofferson in "The Morning After."

by Anonymous

reply 14

03/04/2013

"That was the problem! They wanted me to replace someone the audience didn't know was missing!"

by Anonymous

reply 15

03/04/2013

The sophisticated witty ebullient women played by Kelly in To Catch A Thief, Dial M for Murder and Rear Window were nothing like the girls next door Miles played for him in The Wrong Man and Psycho.

He therefore didn't replace Kelly with Miles, he chose Miles to play roles that she happened to be very right for and which were quite different than those in which he cast Kelly.

By the way, the roles Tippy Hedrin played for Hitchcock, man-battling ice princesses on edge, were also nothing like the Hitchock roles played by either Kelly or Miles. The double role played by Kim Novak in Vertigo - half vulnerable lunatic glamor goddess and half lovesick struggling salt of the earth misfit is similarly distinctive.

The only non-Kelly role in the Hitchcock cannon which seems like it almost could have been tailor made for Kelly (but only almost) in its high style badinage is Eva Marie Saint's in North by Northwest.

by Anonymous

reply 16

03/04/2013

Hitch wanted Vera Charles for the part, but Mame convinced her not to take it.

by Anonymous

reply 17

03/04/2013

Always liked Vera Miles (and her husband, Tarzan!). Glad she is still alive and doing well. She is/was undervalued but very busy in the 50s and 60s. Another actress I liked but who was also unappreciated was Janice Rule--very attractive, married to Ben Gazzara for a long time.

(18) I was a big fan of Janice Rule too and believe she was very underrated...She became a therapist in later years.

by Anonymous

reply 20

03/04/2013

23 Paces to Baker Street...

A nice movie with Vera

by Anonymous

reply 21

03/05/2013

Beautiful photos of Vera Miles

by Anonymous

reply 22

03/05/2013

As Miss Kansas, Vera Miles was second runner-up to Miss America 1948.

by Anonymous

reply 23

03/05/2013

Hitchcock wanted to bang her.

Lol, awful, eh?

by Anonymous

reply 24

03/05/2013

Alfred Hitchcock and Vera MILES ,1957.

...

by Anonymous

reply 25

03/05/2013

R23, i had no idea that Vera Miles was in a beauty contest. Wow! Lol, interesting. I guess 'Hitch' knew that though...

by Anonymous

reply 26

03/05/2013

As i found out she had a number of failed marriages in her life. She has been married three times. Her first husband was Bob Miles. They were married from 1948 until 1954 and had two daughters, Debra and Kelley. Her second husband was Gordon Scott. They were married from 1954 until 1959, and had one son, Michael. Her third husband was actor Keith Larsen. They were married from 1960 until 1971, and had one son, Erik. Does anybody know anything else about her...sex life? Lolz?

I also read that she currently resides in California. She refuses to grant interviews or make public appearances.

by Anonymous

reply 27

03/05/2013

1958 TV Host Singer Tennessee Ernie Ford & Vera Miles Wire Photo

I think i can see now why Hitchcock wanted to make out of her another Grace Kelly.

by Anonymous

reply 28

03/05/2013

Poor Hitch...Vera failed you.

She left you..

by Anonymous

reply 29

03/05/2013

With her second husband Gordon Scott and with one of her daughters from her first marriage i guess

by Anonymous

reply 30

03/05/2013

[quote]With her second husband Gordon Scott and with one of her daughters from her first marriage i guess

This caption really belongs with the photo at R24.

by Anonymous

reply 31

03/05/2013

R31, nice observation. I forgot to write that the man next to Vera in the photo i sent as (R24)was Gordon Scott, her second hubby. However, they are also together in the R30 photo and Vera's daughter is not a chimpanzee!

(R34) She made Five Branded Women right before Psycho so she had to wear a wig.

I always liked her but thought she suffered from terminal stinkface (not unlike Ida Lupino).

by Anonymous

reply 36

03/05/2013

R36 what the fuck is terminal stinkface?

:O

Nice piece of info about the Five Branded Women though sugar. i didn't know that. :)

by Anonymous

reply 37

03/05/2013

Vera Miles was, sadly for her but okay for audiences most of the time, serviceable. She was (and still is) beautiful without being charismatic or stunning. She could carry a role believably. But there always was a little leaden feeling to it.

In the case of "Psycho," she was perfect after Janet Leigh carrying the first part. But Novak's near-incompetent brilliance in "Vertigo" would not have been replaced by the stolid Miles. A completely different movie would have resulted - maybe a more sensible one, but lacking the crazy glory of the one we got.

by Anonymous

reply 38

03/05/2013

Where Vera Is...

by Anonymous

reply 39

03/07/2013

Vera was a little dull but had a good long career in lots of movies, both A and B's, and tv roles. Her 2 with both Hitch and John Ford will keep her name alive.

I'd she she is a second tier leading lady, like Martha Hyer or Dorothy Malone, and then that further tier with the likes Virginia Mayo, Yvonne de carlo, Rhonda Fleming, Arlene Dahl etc.

She was lucky to be been Mrs Gordon Scott when he was in his prime!

by Anonymous

reply 40

03/07/2013

She worked for Disney and with Brandon deWilde in "Those Callaways".

by Anonymous

reply 41

03/07/2013

R41 do you happen to know if Brandon deWilde was actually gay? That kid from Shane...yes and the young man from Hud...well? He was married twice and he had a kid from his first marriage but there are not only a few gay people who can be married and have kids.

What a pity Brandon died so young. As i read in IMDb, while en route to visit his wife at a hospital where she had recently undergone surgery, he was killed in a vehicle accident as the camper van he was driving struck a parked truck. He was only thirty years old.

by Anonymous

reply 42

03/07/2013

Vera Miles is an underrated actress. I think she was very good in several of her films.

by Anonymous

reply 43

03/13/2013

Classy chick

by Anonymous

reply 44

03/13/2013

I understand why Hitchcock wanted her.

by Anonymous

reply 45

03/13/2013

My favourite movies with Vera Miles are:

23 Paces to Baker Street

Back Street

5 Branded Women

Psycho

The Wrong Man

Autumn Leaves

Which are your favourite movies with her?

by Anonymous

reply 46

03/13/2013

I would love to know more about her. Has anyone of you ever met her?

by Anonymous

reply 47

03/13/2013

Why all of her marriages fell apart?

by Anonymous

reply 48

03/13/2013

Did she ever experience a huge orgasm?

by Anonymous

reply 49

03/13/2013

John Gavin lucky bastard!

by Anonymous

reply 50

03/13/2013

Well, Vera Miles was a beautiful woman but she lacked the fire that other actresses of her time had within them.

by Anonymous

reply 51

03/13/2013

She was great playing bitchy roles in the '80s like a vengeful Lila Crane in "Psycho II" and Daphne Zuniga's mother in the fun 1984 slasher "The Initiation" and yes, DAMN lucky to be married to Gordon Scott back then.

by Anonymous

reply 52

03/13/2013

That kind of woman i like more than i like the others. She is special, not just a bimbo who starts fires for the circus R51. Vera Miles is a woman of class and she doesn't need to fake it.

by Anonymous

reply 53

03/19/2013

No mention of her superbitch roles in Joan Crawford's Autumn Leaves, and in Back Street with Susan Hayward, where she is married to her Psycho co-star John Gavin who loves our Susie ... Vera has a couple of good bitchy moments.

by Anonymous

reply 54

03/19/2013

YES VERAAAA!

by Anonymous

reply 55

03/19/2013

Wasn't she in that "sailor who fell in love blah blah blah" film? She showed her old pussy in the film?

by Anonymous

reply 56

03/19/2013

I think Vera Miles is/was beautiful. She wasn't a "replacement" for Grace Kelly. Vera had a strong career in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with films like "The Searchers", "The Wrong Man", "The FBI Story", "Psycho", and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance". She was also in the very first episode of the TV show, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". She also guest starred on just about every TV show from the 1950s through the 1980s. Glad to see that she's still alive, at age 84!

by Anonymous

reply 57

03/19/2013

Lol R56, fucker.

by Anonymous

reply 58

03/19/2013

R57, the only much hyped movie with Vera i haven't watched yet is 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'. All the other well-known films of her i was glad to see. Is this a really good film or it is overrated like many John Ford fims are?

Does Vera appear only a little in 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?' Is her character(of that film)too insipid to watch??????

by Anonymous

reply 59

03/19/2013

I WANT A REPLY NOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

by Anonymous

reply 60

03/19/2013

In '23 Paces to Baker Street' i made that 'censurable' thought: I thought that Vera Miles was more beautiful than Grace Kelly! Well, in that picture she was more beautiful than Grace. Her characteristics were even more refined that Grace's! I know how that may sound to you that's why i called that thought of mine 'censurable'. Lol! But guys, i assure you, if Vera wanted to be always as classy in her appearances as Grace Kelly, she would succed that easily. She was like a painting of art in '23 Paces to Baker Street' and yet she seemed so fragile, classy, human, sexy and sweet.

by Anonymous

reply 61

03/20/2013

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN

by Anonymous

reply 62

03/20/2013

Playing Vera Miles in `Hitchcock` terrifying: Jessica Biel

The 30-year-old newly-wed actress said that it was especially hard to portray Miles because the actress is still alive, reported a website.

"Portraying a woman who is such a screen icon in my mind - and someone who is still alive is terrifying, but exciting. A really provocative thing for me to be able to be a part of," Biel said.

by Anonymous

reply 63

03/20/2013

I like Jessica Biel, but there was no similarity between her and Vera in 'Hitchcock'.

by Anonymous

reply 64

03/20/2013

It's 2013.

by Anonymous

reply 65

03/20/2013

R65 a photo of exquisite Vera Miles for you. Admire her beauty, don't be ashamed mon cheri!

by Anonymous

reply 66

03/20/2013

Classy also

by Anonymous

reply 67

03/20/2013

Vera Miles with Susan Hayward in 'Back Street'

by Anonymous

reply 68

03/20/2013

Aunt Bee and Vera Miles from an eppisode of "Hitchcock Presents" Thats Aunt Bee on the right.

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